The Big Picture: Chapter Overview

Complex human experiences usually involve motivations and emotions that strengthen or weaken those motivations, such as in the incredible case of Lance Armstrong, a story of amazing success after taxing health problems. This chapter explores different approaches to motivation, various types of motivations, and the factors that influence emotions. Motivation refers to the question of "why" we behave, think, and feel the way we do. Motivated behavior is energized, directed, and sustained.

Here we learn about five different approaches to understanding motivations:

• The Evolutionary Approach. This perspective emphasizes the role of instincts (unlearned patterns of behavior) in motivation. McDougall and Freud are figures associated with the early instinct theories of motivation. The contemporary view is that instincts do influence behaviors, particularly those behaviors that are common to all members of a species.
• Drive Reduction Theory. This perspective suggests that drives and needs motivate behavior. A drive is an aroused state that occurs because of a physiological need. Need is a lack or deprivation that energizes the drive to reduce that need. The goal of drive reduction is homeostasis, the body's tendency to maintain equilibrium. This theory has been criticized because many times people act in ways that increase rather than decrease drive.
• Optimum Arousal Theory. Rather than seeking some biologically based balance, the optimum arousal theory says that people are motivated to reach an optimal state of alertness or activation. Consistent with this perspective, the Yerkes-Dodson theory predicts that people perform better at a moderate level of arousal. Also related to this theory is the observation that people differ in the level at which they enjoy and seek stimulation. Sensation-seeking is a motivation to experience new and intense experiences.
• The Cognitive Approach. The previous three perspectives considered some form or another of a biological basis for motivation. The cognitive approach focuses on the rationality and decision-making capacities of humans. Motivations can be intrinsic (based on internal factors) or extrinsic (based on external incentives). For individuals with intrinsic motivation, receiving external rewards may actually reduce their motivation, because of the way in which they interpret the reward. Overall, intrinsic motivation is more effective than extrinsic motivation, particularly if the behaviors are part of complex and long-term goals.
• Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs. Maslow's theory views motivation as a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied in the following order: physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization. Self-actualization is the motivation to develop one's full potential as a human being.

While these approaches separate biological, cognitive, and social influences, in reality all these factors are interrelated.

Hunger is a motivation with a physiological basis; a number of processes and substances influence this motivation to eat. Cannon found that stomach contractions are related to hunger. A full stomach stimulates the hormone CCK to signal the brain to stop eating. The levels of glucose in the bloodstream and in the liver influence the brain signals that can initiate hunger. The hormone insulin influences the level of sugar in the bloodstream, and thus influences hunger. The protein leptin has been associated with obesity, as low levels of leptin lead to slow metabolism, overeating, and getting extremely fat. In the brain, the hypothalamus has what amounts to an on/off switch for hunger. Brain lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus cause animals to become obese, while lesions of the lateral hypothalamus cause animals to stop eating. The genetic basis of obesity is predicted to be between 25 and 70 percent. The aging process, which involves a decline in the basal metabolism rate, contributes to obesity. Weight is also influenced by the set point (the weight maintained when no effort is made to gain or lose weight). Environmental influences on weight include socioeconomic class and culture. Some psychologists have studied dieting by examining restrained eaters, who are people who chronically restrict their food intake to control their weight. Many people on diets initially lose weight, but many gain it back. Programs that include an exercise component seem to be the most effective in weight loss and long-term effects. While some diets have been associated with health problems, people who diet and keep the weight loss reduce their risks for depression and health problems. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa involves starvation as a means to continually lose weight and gain control in a stressful life, a disorder that can lead to death. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by a binge-and-purge eating pattern. While anorexia nervosa is associated with an observable extreme thinness (weighing less than 85% of what is considered normal for the age and height), bulimia nervosa occurs in people with a normal weight range, therefore making it harder to detect and diagnose.

Sexuality is another dimension of human behavior that is motivated by physiological as well as environmental factors. In the brain, the hypothalamus and the limbic system are associated with sexual behavior. Sexual arousal is moderated in the temporal lobe. Sexual motivation is characterized by a basic urge-reward-relief neural circuit; the reward element involves the rush of dopamine that occurs during an orgasm and following the orgasm, the relief experience results from the release of the hormone oxytocin. Sexuality is influenced by hormones, specifically estrogens, which predominate in females, and androgens, which predominate in males. According to Masters and Johnson, the human sexual response pattern consists of four stages: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Cognitive factors such as thoughts, imagery, and interpretation are important in sexuality as well. Sexual scripts influence sexual motivation and are stereotyped patterns of expectancies for how people should behave sexually; examples of scripts include the traditional religious script and the romantic script. Our senses and perceptions also play a role in sexual motivation. Pheromones are odorous hormones released in animals that are powerful attractants and aphrodisiacs are substances that supposedly arouse sexual desires and increase sexual capacity. Culture also influences significantly the manifestations of sexual motivations and behaviors. Some cultures are sexually repressed, while others are more permissive. Psychosexual dysfunctions are disorders that involve impairments in the sexual response pattern, either in the desire for gratification or in the inability to achieve it. Therapies that focus directly on each sexual dysfunction as opposed to traditional psychotherapy have been very effective. Contrary to the claims of an extremely permissive sexuality in America, largely based on improperly conducted research, Americans seem to be relatively conservative in their sexual behaviors. The current view on sexual orientation is that of a continuum from exclusive heterosexuality to exclusive homosexuality, including a bisexual orientation. Homosexuality is not a psychological disorder. An individual's sexual orientation is determined by a combination of genetic, hormonal, cognitive, and environmental factors.

Both hunger and sexual motivations have a strong physiological component; however, many of our motivations do not have such a strong biological basis. Three motivations that have a strong social cognitive foundation are achievement, affiliation, and well-being. The motivation for achievement is the desire to accomplish something to reach a standard of excellence and to expend effort to excel. Attribution theory says that individuals are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as they make sense of behavior. Goal-setting, planning, and self-monitoring are studied as important factors in achievement motivation. People in the United States are often more achievement-oriented than people in other countries, suggesting that there are cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic effects. For studies involving ethnic minorities, socioeconomic status is a better predictor of achievement than ethnicity. The motivation of achievement plays an important role in the workplace and in sports. To increase achievement, goals should be set that are specific, proximal, and challenging.

The need for affiliation is the motive to be with other people. There are individual as well as cultural variations in the need for affiliation. The motivation for well-being is subjectively determined, but it involves three factors: wanting to be competent, being able to be autonomous, and having affiliations. A positive psychological health can be achieved when the person has a purpose in life, has good relationships with others, feels good about himself, and is able to do things effectively.

An emotion is made up of affect, physiological arousal, and behavioral expression. The physiological arousal associated with emotions is controlled in the nervous system. As learned in Chapter Three, the autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for quick responses to stressors, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body. The emotion of anger is associated with activity in the sympathetic nervous system. Methods of measuring arousal include the polygraph, which is used to determine if someone is lying by monitoring changes in the body, believed to be influenced by emotional states. Two emotion theories integrate the physiological component: the James-Lange theory and the Cannon-Bard theory. The James-Lange theory of emotion holds that we perceive a stimulus, our body responds, and we interpret the body's reaction as emotion. The Cannon-Bard theory suggests that we experience an emotion and bodily changes simultaneously. The amygdala is a part of the brain that controls our experience of fear. It receives danger information and sends out instructions to prepare the body. The amygdala is also involved in memory and it is believed to be an important brain structure in explaining the long-term effects of extreme fear experiences. There is also some degree of hemisphere specialization in emotions. The left hemisphere is associated with emotions such as happiness, while the right hemisphere is more linked to emotions such as disgust. The two-factor theory of emotion developed by Schachter and Singer suggests that cognitive factors affect emotion. In this theory, emotions are determined by physiological arousal and cognitive labeling, as we look at the external word to explain the arousal and then label the emotion. In some situations, emotions come before cognition. An emotion will emerge immediately and automatically as a response to the experience and then we will think about the situation, such as when someone screams and scares you. However, in other situations, the way in which we think can determine how we feel about things, such as when a man thinks about a woman, starts by liking her, and then experiences feelings of love toward her. In this case, the emotion followed the cognition.

Examining the behavioral expression of emotion, Ekman has found six basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, and fear. Facial expressions may also influence emotions, according to the facial feedback hypothesis. While there are strong universal, biological ties to the facial expression of emotion, there are cultural factors that influence it. Display rules are sociocultural standards that determine when, where, and how emotions should be expressed. The master stereotype of gender and emotion is that females are emotional and males are not. Researchers have not found differences between males and females with regard to experiencing emotions. In reality, the relationship between emotion and gender is more complex. Emotions often involve social contexts and relationships and gender differences are more likely to occur in contexts that emphasize social roles and relationships. According to Plutchik, emotions have four dimensions: they are positive or negative, they are primary or mixed, many are polar opposites, and they vary in intensity. Another classifying theory is the two-dimensional approach, which focuses on positive versus negative affectivity. Positive emotions are associated with well-being, coping, and the elimination of negative emotions. An example of a negative emotion is anger. The psychodynamic perspective and the social cognitive theory have opposite views regarding the role of catharsis in controlling anger. The psychodynamic approach considers expressing anger as a cathartic experience that reduces the chances of future expressions of anger, while the social cognitive approach reports evidence that anger tends to breed anger. Some of the techniques recommended to manage anger are lowering the anger arousal by waiting, avoid sulking or getting upset over small matters, and exploring different perspectives. An example of a positive emotion is happiness. Some of the psychological factors associated with happiness are self-esteem, optimism, personal control, close relationships, having work and leisure, and faith. One view of happiness says that it boils down to the frequency of positive emotions and the infrequency of negative emotions.